ONTARIO – A 2.4-acre property along Euclid Avenue may be an empty lot right now, but city officials are hoping it will play an important role in invigorating downtown.

Simply known as the “C-1” project, the four story, $40 million investment – being built by the city’s Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization Department along with developer J.H. Snyder Co – will add an additional 153 units.

Construction is expected to begin by July.

When it is completed in the next two years, it will also add a component that recent ventures in the downtown have not: 30,000 square feet of retail space.

The retail space will be located on the ground floor of the building along Euclid Avenue and wrap around C Street, said Brent Schultz, director of the city’s Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization.

“This council has been committed to bringing investment to the downtown to keep growth going. With this project, it will help return investment to this area,” Schultz said.

To date, Ontario has invested $120 million in the neighboring Ontario Town Square project, which includes the Kincaid Series Townhomes and the Colony Apartments.

“This is another component of the city’s continued investment in the downtown,” City Manager Chris Hughes said.

With the City Center Senior apartments also recently completed, the downtown is showing some signs of life, Councilwoman Debra Dorst-Porada said.

A longtime proponent of attracting business to the downtown, Dorst-Porada can often be spotted on the weekends cleaning up the area.

“To me, the 30,000 square feet of retail is important,” she said of the project.

New retail space, she said, will be vital in the city’s efforts to attract a chain store, coffee shop or a well-known restaurant.

“We’ve been trying to get companies like Subway and others interested in the downtown,” Dorst-Porada said.

City officials have been having a hard time getting owners of existing buildings to invest in needed improvements, which Dorst-Porada said could led to private investments.

With the new retail space those opportunities may arise, she said.

“The biggest hurdle is finding the retailers. We already have the bodies,” she said.

Schultz admits the city would like to see more private interest in the downtown but sees it a little differently than Dorst-Porada.

“We need people in our downtown who live in our downtown to get activity. They bring the need for these services,” he said. “It’s going to create more demand.”

But the investment already made by the city and Snyder in recent years demonstrates to lenders that there is a need.

“They can see things are being built,” Schultz said. “The first one is always hard.”

It has been a couple of years since the townhomes and apartments were built, but the city may have learned a lesson from those previous investments.

The townhomes, which were initially intended for sale, were converted into apartments after the developer had trouble filling the vacancy.

Since then, both the buildings have been fully leased, Schultz said.

This time around, officials are going to convert the units into rentals before construction begins.

Currently, the project’s city ordinance only allows for the units to be sold and not rented out. But there are plans before the Planning Commission – expected to be approved at the end of this month – which will amend the city ordinance and allow for the 153 units to also become rentals, Schultz said.

The ordinance would then go to the council for approval, he said.

Once the project is completed, Ontario officials will have invested in the addition of almost 500 apartments to the downtown.

But Schultz said he is not concerned about a shortage of demand for the pending apartments.

“Based on everything we’re seeing, apartments and townhomes are selling. We think there is a vibrant demand for quality housing,” Schultz said. “The market seems to like it.”

The project was stalled for a bit while Snyder waited to obtain funding, which didn’t happen until recently, he said.

But unlike the previous downtown ventures with Snyder, Ontario officials have elected to collaborate with the Snyder on the project.

Which means Ontario is going to retain ownership of the property and instead sign a long-term lease with the developer, Schultz said.

Ontario is investing in the project.

Both agencies will invest $20 million.

But the move does not mean the two agencies are partners, Schultz said, but they do have “incentives for it to do well.”

“We aim to lease them,” Schultz said of the units. “We are putting city investment, we should get a return.”

Just how much still needs to be determined. Pricing on the apartments will be determined by Snyder in a couple of months, he said.

Of the 153 apartments, half will be one-bedroom units and the other half will be two-bedroom apartments. There will be 50 units on each floor, Schultz said.

The apartment will have an open courtyard with a swimming pool. Each apartment will also have patio space, he said.

“There is nothing else in this region that is being built like this, nothing with 153 units,” Schultz said.

When planning for the project began several years ago, city officials faced one challenge with parking, said Otto Kroutil, Ontario’s development agency director.

“We were trying to build a liveable and walkable community and having parking lots doesn’t really contribute to that,” he said.

The solution was to build parking directly underneath the structure, Kroutil said.

Because of the underground parking structure, construction crews first have to remove thousands of pounds of dirt. Once the hole has been excavated, crews will pour the concrete for the parking lot, Schultz said.

Schultz said he is unsure how long that process is expected to take, the construction timeline for the entire project is between 18 and 24 months.

“We’re going to continue to look for ways to keep building the downtown,” Schultz said.

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